


dear happiness

by carpesoo



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Angst, Junmyeon’s Birthday Week 2020, M/M, lapslock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:41:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24199909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carpesoo/pseuds/carpesoo
Summary: there’s one thing that time cannot erase—baekhyun’s love for junmyeon.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Kim Junmyeon | Suho
Comments: 30
Kudos: 44
Collections: Challenge #2 — Merfolk





	dear happiness

**Author's Note:**

> originally written for tinysparks.

“check it out—how much do you think we’ll get for it?”

“is it alive?”

“i don’t know—should we poke it?”

baekhyun feels a sharp pain in his ribcage. he opens his eyes but he sees nothing but black. slowly coming to his senses, baekhyun’s flight-or-fight response kicks in. there’s something covering his eyes and when he tries to move, his fingers catch nothing but a mesh-like material.

he’s trapped.

“oh, shit! it’s moving! junmyeon—you gotta come see this!”

baekhyun is panicking now. what the hell is going on? he quickly rips off the dirty rag that was tied around his head and flinches when he sees two dirty men leering at him. shit, shit, shit—he needs to escape and fast. he grabs hold of the netting that confines him with both of his hands and tries to pull it apart but the material doesn’t give.

“what’s going on?” baekhyun hears a new voice ask. he shifts his gaze to the man that approaches him. the man appears different to the others, his tone is softer and he looks... kinder. “what are you guys doing? let him go, immediately!”

there’s some fumbling around before one of the men—not the one who ordered his release—brandishes a rusty sword. he walks up to baekhyun and swings his blade without mercy.

baekhyun shuts his eyes tight, preparing for the pain that’s about to be inflicted. but nothing happens. when he opens his eyes, he comes face to face with his saviour.

“don’t worry—i’ve got you,” the man says, looking into baekhyun’s eyes. “we won’t hurt you.”

baekhyun has been told too many times not to swim too close to shore. he’s heard all the tales about people and their evil ways. “their hearts are darker than the night sky,” everyone around him would say.

...but this man is different.

“i don’t think it understands us,” one of the other men says.

“can you understand what i’m saying?” the kind man asks.

baekhyun nods.

“okay, good.” the man smiles before turning away to face his companions. “we need to send him back home.”

“hi, i’m junmyeon. what’s your name?” he asks baekhyun.

baekhyun points to his lips and shakes his head apologetically.

“you can’t speak?”

baekhyun nods again. he doesn’t know how he’s going to communicate with junmyeon. he’s about to lose all hope when he remembers a story he had heard many years ago. he’s not sure if it’ll work but he’ll give it a go. he beckons for junmyeon to come closer and when the man nears, baekhyun presses their lips together. “my name is baekhyun.”

“baekhyun...” 

it’s the first time baekhyun has heard his name being spoken out loud.

“woah, did you just _kiss_ it?”

“stop referring to him as an ‘it’,” junmyeon says. “his name is baekhyun.”

“but _it’s_ not human.”

baekhyun isn’t—he’s a merman. he has a tail instead of legs and he lives in the ocean with the fishes, away from the dangerous humans. speaking of which, it’s about time for baekhyun to leave. he points to the water, indicating his desire to return back home.

junmyeon instructs the other men to help him hoist baekhyun back to shore. “goodbye and take care, baekhyun.” he smiles and bids the merman farewell.

baekhyun leans in and kisses the man again. “thank you, junmyeon.” he waves one last time before swimming back into the sea.

baekhyun returns to shore the next day to catch a glimpse of the kind man who saved him. junmyeon recognises him and takes a seat on the sand. he dips his toes into the sea and keeps baekhyun company until the sun sets. junmyeon does most of the talking, telling grand stories about life on dry land.

“baekhyun, will you tell me more about merfolk?” junmyeon asks.

baekhyun nods and gestures with his hands that their lips need to be connected for him to ‘speak.’

“okay, i understand.”

it becomes a daily routine. baekhyun visits the shore and junmyeon is usually already there to greet him. on the days junmyeon is unable to meet up with him, he always leaves a red rose on the rock nearby for baekhyun to find.

one night, junmyeon reaches for baekhyun’s hand and slips a silver ring on one of his fingers. “this represents my love for you, baekhyun.”

baekhyun smiles—his heart jumping for joy—before leaning in to kiss junmyeon. “i love you, too.”

they continue to spend their days together. they hold hands and baekhyun marvels at the matching rings that symbolise their love. as time goes on, baekhyun notices junmyeon’s hair has started to turn grey and there are lines that mark his face that never used to be there. junmyeon also moves and speaks slower than before.

one day in junmyeon’s absence, baekhyun finds a white lily instead of a rose. and then the flowers stop altogether. baekhyun still returns day after day but there’s never any sign of junmyeon or roses left for him.

a few days later, baekhyun finds junmyeon’s ring beside some etchings on the rock’s smooth surface. baekhyun traces over the markings, unable to read what they say. he slides the ring onto his finger, just above the one that junmyeon had given him.

something tells baekhyun that he won’t get to see junmyeon again.

baekhyun is heartbroken when he discovers that humans usually don’t live that long—they rarely get to see past a hundred years old. merfolk, on the other hand, live for centuries long.

baekhyun isn’t sure how many years—decades—have passed. he’s lost count. but he still makes his daily trips to the shore, unable to forget the fleeting days he used to spend with the man he still loves dearly.

the words that used to mark the rock’s surface have since weathered away. baekhyun carves a heart into the rock, like he does every day before returning to the ocean.

he’ll be back again tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> this was the first fic (drabble, rather) that i actually finished since last year and even tho it’s short (as part of the challenge), i’m really quite pleased with this ^^
> 
> kudos and comments are very welcome—nay—encouraged~
> 
> (wanna know what i get up when i’m not writing fic? you can find me [here.)](https://dinomight.carrd.co/)


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